Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) specifications starting with LTE Release 11 utilize carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation is a technique by which multiple frequency bands, which for LTE are multiple 20 Megahertz (MHz) frequency bands, are aggregated for downlink or uplink transmission. A 3GPP LTE cellular transceiver that supports carrier aggregation can be configured to simultaneously transmit in multiple frequency bands and/or simultaneously receive in multiple frequency bands.
Currently, there is high interest in a single-chip cellular transceiver that supports carrier aggregation. One of the many design challenges for such a transceiver is Local Oscillator (LO) frequency planning. LO frequency planning refers to the selection of the LO frequencies. In order to operate according to a carrier aggregation scheme, a single-chip cellular transceiver includes multiple Phase Locked Loops (PLLs) to generate LO signals necessary for downconversion and/or upconversion for multiple frequency bands. The number of different frequency band combinations that have to be supported by the single-chip cellular transceiver for carrier aggregation is large and new combinations are being introduced all the time. Many of these combinations require multiple PLLs to be enabled simultaneously.
One challenge in frequency planning that is particularly problematic for a single-chip carrier aggregation cellular transceiver comes from the fact that the controlled oscillators (COs) in the PLLs are sensitive to interference. For example, two PLLs running at the same frequency, or approximately the same frequency, interfere with each other. This interference degrades the noise performance of the PLLs. This same problem occurs if the PLLs run at frequencies that have a harmonic relation (i.e., a harmonic of the LO frequency of one PLL is the same as or approximately the same as the LO frequency of another PLL). In a receiver, this interference results in degradation of throughput due to phase noise sidebands in the LO signal used for downconversion. During downconversion (i.e., mixing), these phase noise sidebands mix parts of the received signal on top of itself.
In light of the discussion above, there is a need for systems and methods for mitigating interference in a LO signal generated by a PLL.